1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording sheet processing device and particularly relates to a collection mechanism for collecting a recording sheet that gets jammed and recording sheets that follow the jammed recording sheet.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine or a printer/printing machine, a toner image formed as a visible image on a latent image carrier such as a photosensitive element is transferred on a recording sheet to obtain a copy of the image.
There are times when an image forming apparatus is equipped with a finishing device that performs stapling or sorting of discharged recording sheets. In such a case, a buffer unit is sometimes disposed between the recording sheet discharging side of the image forming apparatus and the finishing device.
In case a sheet jam occurs, that is, in case a recording sheet gets jammed inside the image forming apparatus including inside the buffer unit or in case a recording sheet gets jammed while being conveyed after getting discharged from the image forming apparatus, then the operations of the apparatus are stopped and the jammed recording sheet is removed by searching the location of the sheet jam.
However, in recent years, configurations have been proposed to prevent the productivity from declining due to the stoppage in operations when a recording sheet gets jammed in the conveying path. In such configurations, it is ensured that a jammed recording sheet gets transferred from the normal conveying path to a separate conveying unit so that the conveyance of the recording sheets fed after the jammed recording sheet is not stopped. Such a conventional technology has been disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2003-95508, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2005-343661, and Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H09-236957.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2003-95508 discloses a configuration in which a recording sheet getting jammed inside a buffer is diverged toward a tray from the conveying path leading to a finishing device.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2005-343661 discloses a configuration in which a jammed recording sheet is discharged toward an exclusive tray inside a finishing device.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H09-236957 discloses a configuration in which a recording sheet having an image recorded on one side thereof is re-conveyed to an exclusive sheet feeding tray for the purpose of reusing.
When a recording sheet gets jammed while being conveyed, the conveyance of recording sheets other than the jammed recording sheet is immediately stopped or the other recording sheets are transferred to a specific location.
In such a configuration, the printing operation resumes after the recording sheets other than the jammed recording sheet are also removed. Thus, if the recording sheets remain stagnant at a large number of locations, then the task of removing those recording sheets becomes difficult.
Thus, it is desirable to employ a configuration as disclosed in the abovementioned patent literature in which recording sheets remaining on the conveying path at the time of a sheet jam are transferred to an exclusive tray.
However, if the operations of an apparatus are stopped as described above when a sheet jam occurs at the finishing device side, then the recording sheet that is sandwiched in a stopped conveying member remains in an extended state over a switching claw that is used in switching between conveying directions.
Thus, even if an attempt is made to change the orientation of the switching claw and set it in a position that enables guiding of the subsequent recording sheets to the tray side, the switching claw cannot be moved due to the recording sheet remaining thereover in an extended state.